Media Platforms Design TeamAs Sikorsky Aircraft rolled out its new CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James F. Amos, introduced the name: King Stallion.Slated to be operational in 2019, the King Stallion is among the first digitally designed helicopters, presaging a new generation of rotorcraft that will emerge in the next decade and a half. They’ll be faster, more efficient, more lethal, and more capable.While wags immediately observed that King Stallion sounds vaguely pornographic, it’s actually a play on the CH-53K’s predecessors. Twin-engine CH-53A/D Sea Stallions first began providing heavy-lift utility transport for the Marines in 1968. In the 1980s, an updated version of the helicopter, the CH-53E Super Stallion, added another engine and more lift capability. Now comes the King Stallion, whose two most vital traits—lift capacity and survivability—are much improved over the earlier helos.“The CH-53K aircraft will effectively triple the external load-carrying capacity of the CH-53E aircraft, to more than 27,000 pounds over a mission radius of 110 nautical miles,” says Sikorsky president Mick Maurer.Thanks to powerful new GE T408 engines and a lightweight composite structure, the King can move more troops and equipment from ship to shore, and to higher-altitude terrain. The helo shed that weight by using titanium frames under the gearbox, and carbon-fiber skins and beams elsewhere. And though it can do so much more than its predecessors, the CH-53E hasn’t gotten any bigger, which means the same ships and cargo aircraft can transport it.View full post on YoutubeMaurer points to three key technologies—a new rotor system, split-torque transmission, and fly-by-wire controls—that make the King Stallion so rugged.Rotors: The helo’s 79-foot-diameter main rotor has a new elastomeric hub developed from one used on Sikorsky’s S-92. The rotor blades from the earlier CH-53E are replaced by fourth-generation composite blades with new, wider-chord airfoils. The King Stallion’s 20-foot tail rotor generates the same thrust as the main rotor on an S-76.Transmission: A split-torque gearbox divides the power from each one of the aircraft’s three engines among four shafts that drive a gear, which turns the main rotor. Although the gearbox is lighter than those that came before, it can handle the combined 22,500 hp of the GE engines.Fly-by-wire: The system builds on those designed for Sikorsky’s CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopter and upgraded UH-60MU Black Hawk. Unlike its predecessor, the CH-53K is flown with side-stick cyclic controllers with tactile cueing. The controls improve on the CH-53E’s handing qualities, Sikorsky says, and provide better stability/control in degraded visual environments. The controls are complimented by a new glass cockpit with five liquid-crystal flight displays derived from Rockwell Collins’s Common Avionics Architecture System, used in the special-operations MH-60M.Media Platforms Design TeamThe result of all this engineering is a draft horse of a helicopter that can meet U.S. Marine Corps requirements while using 20 percent less fuel and offering greater interior cargo flexibility.The first CH-53K ground-test vehicle (GTV) is currently undergoing tests at Sikorsky’s West Palm Beach, Florida, facility. The GTV is nearly identical to the four flight-test aircraft (YCH-53K) that will begin flying later this year. The Marines plan to buy 200 King Stallions.
